The Masnavi, Book One (Oxford World's Classics)

The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
164

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Their clemency’s the foam from My sea’s tides ––
It passes but its ocean source abides.” ’
Before that pearl this shell you see is dumb,
It’s nothing but a worthless piece of scum,
By both the foam and that pure sea, it’s plain
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This speech is not a trial and not in vain ––
It comes from love, humility, and grace,
I swear by Him to whom I turn my face!
If this desire seems like a trial to you
Then test the trial now for a moment too!
Don’t hide your secret, so mine you might view,
Command then anything that I can do ––
Don’t hide your heart, so mine might be disclosed
And then accept whatever is imposed.
What shall I do, and where may I begin?
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Look what a mess my troubled soul is in!
The wife speci
fies to her husband the way to seek
daily sustenance, and he accepts
The wife replied, ‘A sun has shone its light
From which a universe has now turned bright:
The Maker’s caliph, God’s own deputy,
Through him Baghdad’s like spring eternally ––
Join with this king then you’ll be one as well,
Why keep on heading to misfortune’s hell?
It’s alchemy, these great kings’ company,
Compared with their glance what’s mere alchemy!
Mohammad glanced on Abu Bakr’s face
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He then became 
veracious
* through his grace.’
The husband said, ‘How can I meet a king
Without a pretext for my visiting?
I have to have a link or stratagem:
Things can’t be made without the tools for them.
Majnun when he heard somebody once say
That Layli had been slightly ill that day,
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
165

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Said, “How can I go there without excuse?
If I can’t visit her bring me a noose!
If I were a physician I could go,
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I would have visited a while ago.”
For God said, “
Say, come! ”
* freeing us from stress,
To signal we should end our bashfulness;
If bats had vision and ability
By day they’d
fly around so happily.’
The wife said, ‘When the king should join the fray
Impotence turns to power straight away,
So when your means is vile pretentiousness
You must choose impotence and helplessness.’
He said, ‘How can I trade without the tools
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Unless I show I’m helpless and he rules?
I must have evidence I’m penniless
For any king to pity my distress.
Other than words and looks show evidence
To gain the pity of his eminence,
For this proof based on talk and how you look
Is immaterial in the judge’s book ––
To prove your worth he wants sincerity
Free from words, then his light shines perfectly.’
The bedouin takes a jug of rainwater from the middle of the
desert to Baghdad as a present for the Commander of the
Faithful,
* imagining that water is scarce there as well
She said, ‘Sincerity’s to strive hard, love,
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Cleansed of existence then to rise above ––
We’ve stored rain in this jug and now it’s full:
It’s your possession, means and capital,
So take this jug and journey to the king
To give it to him as an o
ffering;
Tell him we’ve nothing more, he’ll understand
There’s nothing 
finer in our desert land;
His storehouses may have the 
finest fare
But they won’t have such water that’s so rare.’
The Poor Bedouin and his Wife
166

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This jug’s our body so it must contain
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All of our outward senses’ bitter rain:
O Lord, accept this water that we’ve brought
By the grace of their lives